


Little Things

by BuckinghamAlice



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Babies, Domestic, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-03
Updated: 2014-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-07 07:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1117227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckinghamAlice/pseuds/BuckinghamAlice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Granddads-to-be Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, and Jim Gordon await the birth of Dick and Babs' twins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Things

**Author's Note:**

> Because [Riley1C](http://riley1cannon.tumblr.com/) sent me this awesome prompt and because [Fab](http://fabula-unica.tumblr.com/) promised me a comment (and I'm easy). =)
> 
> Superbat: Clark and Bruce are about to become grandpas. (Dick/Babs, so Jim Gordon's freaking out too? Your call, though.)

“You don’t have to come,” Dick had said.  “It might be a while.”  Those were the last words Bruce had heard on the other end of the phone line before he hung up and climbed out of bed.

“Clark,” he stage whispered urgently.  “Wake up, Clark.  It’s time.”  He was already bustling about, pulling a pair of jeans on over his boxers.

Clark rolled over and yawned.  “Time for what?” he asked sleepily.

“That was Dick,” Bruce sighed.  “Barbara is in labor.”  The last part came out a little muffled as he pulled a t-shirt over his head.

Clark sat up in bed and the sheet pooled around his waist.  “But this is too soon.  It’s three weeks early.”

Bruce sighed again, heavily this time.  Then he picked up a pair of pants from the floor and tossed them to Clark.  “By all means, then.  Go back to bed.  I’ll just call Dick back and tell him to have Barbara hold the babies in for a few more weeks.  _You_ need your rest.”

“Hey,” Clark said, furrowing his brow.  “Don’t get snippy with me.”  He stood up and pulled the pants on, stretching once more as he did so.  “I was just saying… I mean, it isn’t good for them to be too early…”

Bruce paused.  “Everything will be fine.”

“Of course,” Clark agreed quickly.  Bruce silently shoved a shirt into his hands and he tried to pull it on.  “This is yours, I think.  Too tight.  You have mine… swap me.”

Bruce rolled his eyes.  “You complicate everything.  Just get a different one.”

“You look like you’re wearing clothes you found on the floor,” Clark grumbled, grabbing a t-shirt from his second dresser drawer.

***********

Jim Gordon was already in the waiting room at the hospital when Bruce and Clark arrived.  “Oh, good, you’re finally here,” he said.  “Was about to lose my damn mind waiting out here by myself.”

“They wouldn’t let you in the room with Babs?” Clark asked.

Jim shook his head.  “Well, the hospital didn’t have a problem with it, but Babs said, and I quote, ‘dear God, no Dad, please Dad no, God,’ so I’d just as soon stay out here.”  Then, with a little huff, he added, “Besides, in my day, the father’s stayed in the waiting room anyways.”

Bruce shook his head distractedly as he took a seat next to Jim.  “This hospital has been allowing fathers in the delivery room since 1978.”  Clark sat down beside Bruce and gently placed his hand on his husband’s.  He was pleasantly surprised when Bruce grabbed his hand and held tight to it.

Jim gave him an odd look.  “Well, I’m not the father.  I’m the _grand_ father.”

“Oh, goodness,” Clark exclaimed softly.

“What?” Bruce demanded.  “What is it?”

“It’s just… we’re going to be grandfathers,” Clark replied, shaking his head.

Bruce raised an eyebrow.  “You didn’t just figure that out, I hope.”

“Of course not,” Clark said.  “I just… when I thought about it before, I thought, ‘hey, in X amount of months, Dick and Babs are going to have a baby and I’m going to be that baby’s grandpa.’  And then we found out it was going to be twins… and now it’s really happening.”

Bruce nodded and stroked the back of Clark’s hand with his thumb.  “It is.”

“Two of them,” Jim commented.  “Two little girls.  She always used to say she hoped she’d have girls.”

Clark smiled.  “I hope they have those little dimples Dick used to get, but only when he’d give you this cheeky, mischievous little smile.”

“Babs was always so rosy cheeked,” Jim added.  “She still is.  I wouldn’t mind seeing that on a little girl again.”

Bruce nodded.  “I just hope they’re… well.”

Clark nodded and put his other hand on top of Bruce’s.  “They will be.  Everything will be fine.”  But still… three weeks early.  It wasn’t so early that they had to fear for the babies’ safety… but it wasn’t easy to pretend that all three men in that waiting room weren’t concerned.

Jim cleared his throat and stood up.  “In my day, you could smoke in the waiting room.”  He began to pace the floor.

**************

“How far along was she when they came in?” Tim asked.  It had been several hours and the sun was now up.  Jim was asleep in one of the chairs in the waiting room and Bruce was sitting quite literally at the edge of his chair, jittery for the first time in his life.  Clark was beside him, long legs stretched out in front of him as he tapped his empty paper coffee cup on the arm of his uncomfortable chair.  Alfred had brought Tim and Damian to the hospital when they woke up, and now they were all sitting together in the waiting room, impatience in the air.

“The contractions were about four minutes apart when they left for the hospital,” Clark replied.  “And they were about two minutes apart when we got here.”

Damian frowned.  “How much longer does she plan to keep us waiting?  I could have been in bed instead of sitting around here waiting for Grayson’s spawn to make their dramatic entrance to the world.”

“Bite your tongue, Master Damian,” Alfred said.  “You should be happy to have this chance to welcome your nieces to the world.  And it will take as long as it takes.  I’m sure Ms. Barbara is even more eager for it to be over with than you are.”

“This is supposed to be such a good hospital,” Bruce said, quite apropos of nothing.  “Why isn’t anyone coming to tell us anything?”

Clark patted Bruce’s knee.  “No news is good news, right?”

“You have a cliché for every situation, don’t you?” Bruce asked, frowning.

Clark raised an eyebrow.  “I do.  You’ll recall that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Bruce sighed.  “So help me…”  He cut himself off.  “You could take this a little more seriously.”

“You’re being serious enough for everyone in the room,” Clark replied.

“As usual,” Tim chimed in.

Damian groaned.  “Shut up, Drake.”

“You two stay out of this,” Bruce said warningly.  Then, looking back to Clark, he said, “I’m not sure why I’m surprised at your refusal to take this seriously.”

“Don’t even go there,” Clark replied.

“All you’ve done is talk about how you hope the twins will look and the presents we should buy for them,” Bruce complained.

Clark sighed.  “And what would you have me say and do?”

“Act like you care,” Bruce replied.  “Pretend it concerns you that we’ve been waiting for hours and no one has told us a single thing.”

“You do not want to go there,” Clark warned, and Bruce looked thoroughly unimpressed.  “I’m not going to sit here and listen to you accusing me of not caring,” Clark continued.  “I’m every bit as on edge as you are… I just don’t feel the need to act like an ass to everyone around me like you do.”

“Really,” Bruce said, not a question or even a comment.  Just a response.

Just enough to bother his husband.  “Yes, really.  I don’t have to remind you that this is as much my family as it is yours… and I love these kids just as much as you do.”

“I never said –” Bruce began to defend himself, but he was interrupted.

“That is quite enough, you two,” Alfred said sternly.  “Whether you argue or make peace isn’t going to affect how soon the babies come along, but I can’t imagine you’ll want to look back on this moment in future and remember yourselves arguing like a couple of little boys with hurt feelings.”

Clark nodded.  “You’re right, Alfred.”  Then, with a glance at his husband, he said, “I’m going to get another cup of coffee.”

Jim snored himself awake.

*****************

“If you come back, I’ll be nice,” was the first text message Clark received before the elevator had even reached the basement, where the cafeteria was located.

“In case the last message wasn’t clear, I’m sorry,” was the second message as coffee flowed from a vending machine into a second paper cup.

“And in case I haven’t said as much lately, I love you,” was the third message Clark read, and this time he was on his way back upstairs in the elevator.

*****************

“It’s a girl!” Dick crowed when he came into the waiting room, still in the scrubs he’d had to wear in the delivery room.  “It’s two girls!  Two perfect little girls.”  Dick was almost lost among the family as they hugged and congratulated him on the birth of Emma Analetta, who was six pounds even and eighteen inches long, and her twin sister Carly Lovina, who was born four minutes later, at six pounds and five ounces and nineteen and a half inches long.

“Will you two call everyone else who isn’t here?” Dick asked Bruce and Clark.  “Because I want to go back in the room with Babs and the girls.”  Then, eyes shining, he said, “I can’t believe I can finally say that.  Babs and the girls… my wife and daughters.”

Clark smiled.  “I bet it feels wonderful.  And of course we’ll call everyone.”

“Thanks, you guys,” Dick said.  “And I’m sure the girls can’t wait to meet their family.” 

As Clark made note of everyone they’d need to call, Bruce was very silent, just staring at his phone in his hand.  Clark put his hand on Bruce’s shoulder and asked, “Hey, you okay, gramps?”

Bruce snorted a little laugh and shook his head.  “I am.  I just… I can’t remember ever being so thankful for something so normal.”

Clark smiled.  “It’s nice, isn’t it?”

“Thank you for being sane,” Bruce said.  “Or, at least a _little_ more sane than I was.”

“Only a very little,” Clark replied.  “But you don’t have to thank me.  What else would I have been doing?”

“Nothing, gramps,” Bruce said with a little smile, taking Clark’s hand.  “Absolutely nothing.”

*************

A few hours later, after all the calls had been made, Jim had had to leave, and Alfred had taken Tim and Damian home, Bruce and Clark sat in Barbara’s hospital room as the two new parents slept.

Bruce was holding Emma, the older and smaller baby, and Clark was holding Carly, the younger and larger baby.  They were fraternal twins and didn’t look very much alike, but they were both beautiful.  Emma was pale and had a head full of red curls and gemstone blue eyes, and Carly had the blackest hair either of her grandfathers had ever seen on a baby with softer blue eyes and slightly darker skin.  They were both calm babies, but Emma was more attentive than Carly and always had her eyes open and seemed to notice things, even though she was too young to have that kind of focus.  Carly was friendlier than Emma and would let anyone hold her and could get comfortable with people easily.

Clark, or (as he decided he wanted the girls to call him) PopPop, couldn’t stop stroking Carly’s little cheeks and soft black hair.  “Do you ever wish we had gotten to do this?” he asked.

Bruce, or Grampa to the girls, was smiling at Emma, who was gripping his finger and watching him.  “We did do this.  As you said, they’re just as much your kids as mine… even when I act like I don’t remember that or believe it, I do.  They wouldn’t be the people they are today without you having been there with me.”

Clark smiled.  “That’s very kind of you to say, and I do appreciate it.  But I was just… I mean, do you ever wish we had gotten to have ours from the time they were this size?  Even one of them?”

Bruce raised an eyebrow.  “They wouldn’t be the people they are if they hadn’t had these other lives before they were ours.”

“I know that,” Clark said, nodding.  “I just sometimes feel like we… I dunno… missed out.  Do you…?”

“No,” Bruce said.  “No.  Absolutely not.  No more.”  Then, feeling like the look Emma was giving him had turned rather judgmental, he said, “No offense.”

Clark smiled.  “We still have time.”  Carly gave him a little smile that couldn’t have been anymore than just gas, but he smiled back anyways.  “Carly agrees with me.”

“Well, Emma doesn’t,” Bruce said.  “She doesn’t want an aunt or uncle who’s younger than she is.  It’d be silly.”

“It’d be wonderful,” Clark replied.

Bruce shook his head.  “Stop getting ideas.  You’re seeing these sweet little faces right now, but when we go home and have to make sure Damian and Tim haven’t killed one another, I want you to focus on that.  _These_ turn into _that_.”  But there was part of him who agreed with Clark… it would be wonderful.  And there was another part of him that loved the way Clark looked at their granddaughters so much that he could imagine… but no.  That was all a discussion for another time.  But for the moment, he reminded himself it would be silly. 

Silly and perfect and absolutely _wonderful_.

**Author's Note:**

> And also, I just realized Babs actually had no lines in this and pretty much just spawned... so I don't know how to feel about that and now definitely need to write the second part. =P


End file.
